Another interesting day at sea, largely sailing through Biscay. A grey day, around 15C, windy… perhaps Force 8. The ship is still remarkably stable, seemingly barely moving at all and yet making a good 20 knots through the water. Haven’t heard anyone complaining of motion sickness therefore and no sickbags have been deployed – always a bad sign when you see them come out around the ship. But, as I’ve said before, this ship is amazing.
Had a quick breakfast and then went to art. Today we finished off a sunset waterfront scene. Not totally pleased with it, but I managed to improve it from what it was like at one point. It’s always tricky when you start working with a new teacher because they have very different methods and techniques and things you could do using an “old” method are suddenly more difficult using a different one. Still, this lady does know her stuff and we are learning all sorts of technical tips from her about different brushes, the use of different brushes and things like that. I find her a bit irritating in some ways. She rabbits on a bit… well, a lot….. and some of it is a load of drivel 😊 but that’s probably just my opinion!!!!!
After art, we hived off to have our usual sushi lunch which was delicious and then read until it was time for French at 1:30. I am really enjoying it. Bob is finding it harder as he never learned French in school, in fact didn’t do any second language in school and so things like “declining” a verb or nouns having gender doesn’t come naturally at all. Still, he is not as baffled as a Japanese couple in the class. Our teacher is pretty hot on pronunciation and the poor Japanese are really struggling with the French “R” sound and the “eu”. I must confess to having to bite my gums when I see them trying to get their mouths to make these totally unfamiliar sounds.
After French, more reading and then some afternoon tea. I shouldn’t have eaten that but I saw some egg sandwiches and was totally lost. I also ate a white chocolate and lemon cake. I have no idea how that got into my mouth !!!!! Note to self: avoid tea lounge in the afternoon at all costs!
Our final afternoon activity was to go and see the film “Victoria and Abdul” in the cinema. Have been wanting to see that for ages and it did not disappoint. Judy Dench was wonderful as Victoria and the chap who played Abdul was too. A lovely tale of loneliness and friendship coupled with a less than shining example of British behaviour from the rest of the Royal Household. I suppose we must not judge by today’s standards as it was probably the friendship that was unusual, not the attitudes to the friendship, but still……
Tonight was the first of the cocktail parties for us, hosted by the Captain. Apparently there are 38 nationalities of guests aboard, British, American and Australian being the largest contingents with British being over 1000. The crew number 50+ nationalities. Managed to enjoy 4 glasses of free Cunard champagne while chatting to Brigid, our lovely French teacher who is actually German and lives in Malta. A very nice time.
Good dinner with our lively table. We all moved around tonight and I sat next to Earl who is a gay man in his 40s, originally from Doncaster but for the last 30 years from Highgate. He’s appeared in the West End but now does largely cabaret. His big piece is Judy Garland. We had a lovely thespy chat LOL
After that the show which was a Broadway musical selection. Very good.